senselessadj.
/ˈsɛnsləs/, U.S. /ˈsɛnsləs/ 1.
a. Of a person: unconscious; lacking consciousness (consciousness n. 5); not aware of oneself or one's environment.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > unconsciousness > [adjective]
insensible1426
senselessa1547
deadly1548
unsensible1568
slumbered1590
exanimate1619
lifeless1668
unconscious1832
impassive1846
a1547 Earl of Surrey tr. Virgil Certain Bks. Aenæis (1557) ii. sig. B.iiv With senslesse bodies euery strete is spred, Eche palace, and sacred porch of the Gods.
1551 T. Raynald tr. A. Vesalius Compend. Declar. Vertues Oile Imperial sig. Fiiiv Offt times the patient, xxiiii. houres or more, lieth so senseles that it appearith the same of al liffe to be wholi destitute.
1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida i. sig. Cv Senseless he sprauld, all notcht with gaping wounds.
1747 tr. Mem. Nutrebian Court I. v. 89 I was carried home senseless and extremely bruised, which caused me to fall into a light-headed fever.
1778 F. Burney Evelina III. xvii. 194 I was almost senseless with terror.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iv. 433 His wife..was carried senseless to her chamber.
1889 F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkback 109 Where the poor fellow was lying senseless from his fall.
1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes 112 I was conscious for a moment of the chloroform rag which was thrust over my mouth, but I have no notion how long I may have been senseless.
1971 A. B. Adams Geronimo xi. 156 Soon the ground was covered with the bodies of senseless warriors.
2012 T. Earley in New Yorker 1 Oct. 65/1 The..meteorite that might at any moment drop out of the sky and render him senseless.
b. Of a body, body part, etc.: deprived of sensation or feeling; insentient.
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the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > [adjective]
unfeelingc1000
dead?c1225
unwitlessc1225
insensiblec1400
unfeelablec1400
unfredeablec1450
insensate?1520
blatea1522
deaf?1527
unsensible1531
inanimatea1555
senseless1557
unsensate1561
sleeping1562
insensitive1610
unsensitive1610
torpid1613
inanimated1646
torpent1647
unperceptive1668
feelless1684
insentient1764
unsentient1768
sensationless1824
apathic1835
non-sensitive1836
zombie-like1932
zombie-esque1946
zomboid1963
zombied1972
1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes sig. P.iiiiv Popilius flyeth, therwhyle: and, leauyng there The senslesse stock, a gryzely sight doth bear Unto Antonius boord, with mischief fed.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 306 His cheekes must not be pinched by the bridle, least the skin grow sencelesse.
1687 P. Adair Let. 13 Jan. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) VI. 208 A Palsie deserving, allmost, the name of Hemiplegia (for the greatest part of one side was constantly cold and senselesse).
1725 N. Robinson New Theory of Physick vi. 46 The more of those Carnose Fibres..goes to the Composition of any Part, the more dull and senseless is the Perception of that Part.
1772 N. D. Falck Treat. Venereal Dis. ii. vi. 258 Sometimes the parts will swell and be hard, sometimes quite senseless, and at other times again become inflamed and painful.
1848 Veterinarian Jan. 257 In the..horse's originally lame and senseless foot the power of feeling can be proved to have returned.
a1880 P. Moise Secular & Relig. Wks. (1911) 204 That senseless nerve has never yet thy soft vibrations felt.
1901 tr. in T'oung Pao 2 259 If the body is so numb as to be quite senseless, the skin is dead.
1957 R. Bradbury Dandelion Wine 253 A fly, like the burning ash of a cigarette, fell upon his senseless hand, sizzled, and flew away.
2013 H. Cross In Dream's Eye i. xii. 82 He slapped and rubbed his stiff and senseless legs.
c. Of an object or inanimate thing: incapable of sensation or perception.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > absence of life or consciousness > [adjective] > incapable of sensation or perception
senseless1559
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > [adjective] > of things
senseless1559
1559 W. Bavand tr. J. Ferrarius Common Weale iv. f. 59v Amphion eke that Thebes builte, by sounde of harpe was saied, To haue removde the senselesse stones, and where he woulde, them laied.
1577 H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. I. ii. ii. sig. H.vj/2 What needest thou any more hereafter, to hunte after senselesse Idoles?
1610 R. Tofte tr. N. de Montreux Honours Acad. i. 15 Love doth willing draw The hardest hearts and sencelest rocks of Epyr with great awe.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Hamlet (1623) ii. ii. 477 Then senselesse Illium, Seeming to feele his blow, with flaming top Stoopes to his Bace, and with a hideous crash Takes Prisoner Pyrrhus eare.
1736 A. Hill tr. Voltaire Zara iii. i. 39 I stand, immoveable, like senseless Marble!
1798 W. Sotheby tr. C. M. Wieland Oberon viii. lx. 81 Downward she rushes in this dreary grave..Become, ah! would to heav'n! herself a senseless stone.
1825 T. Hook Sayings & Doings 2nd Ser. III. 105 He reflected whither the senseless paper was soon to be conveyed.
1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lxiv. 165 The brutish winds..senseless, voiceless, inhuman Utter'd cry they hear not, in answers hollow reply not.
1952 Alton (Illinois) Evening Tel. 12 Apr. 20/2 They appeased their gods and made obedient noises to senseless stone and deaf wood.
2001 W. Sircable Earthfont 165 The decomposition is spreading, John thought, spreading along the hard and senseless streets.
d. Esp. of sleep, death, the grave, etc.: characterized by or associated with a state of deep unconsciousness or insentience. Now rare.
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1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 67 What harme can there be in death? which if it were not senselesse, might much rather be termed immortalitie, then death.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xxiv. sig. Xx7 With that, he stabbed himselfe into diuers places of his breast, and throte, vntill those wounds..brought him to the senselesse gate of Death.
1627 R. Bernard Guide Grand-iury Men i. ii. 13 In another disease..the sicke are also suddenly taken and surprized with a senselesse trance.
a1674 T. Traherne Circulation in Poems (1966) 45 Those Joys and Praises must repair To us, which tis a Sin To bury, in a Senceless Tomb.
1744 M. Horbery Enq. into Scripture-doctr. of Future Punishment iv. 218 Their Punishment, or Pain, will be so violent, that it will not only separate the Soul from the Body..but also cast it into a senseless Sleep.
1797 E. J. Eyre Fatal Sisters ii. 25 Well, O'Leary, if, when I am dropp'd into the cold and senseless grave, thou should'st e'er escape from out this lonely, dim recess.
1829 United Service Jrnl. Jan. 96 Who would not rather slumber In the still and senseless tomb!
1864 Rochester (Indiana) Sentinel 5 Mar. 5/6 He sank into a deep, senseless sleep the moment he settled down.
1914 Humboldt (Calif.) Republican 25 Sept. 7/2 Kirk was roused from a..senseless slumber the next morning by a vigorous rapping at his door.
1964 K. Kesey Sometimes Great Notion 375 The husk of a man who nightly drank himself into a senseless sleep.
2. † b. Followed by a that-clause: unaware. Obsolete. rare.
a. Without sense, awareness, or consciousness of something. Also: incapable of sympathetic or emotional responsiveness; insensitive; unfeeling. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > absence of perception > [adjective]
unwittingc893
unweeting1303
senseless1560
weetless1579
witless1584
imperceptive1661
inconscious1678
unconscious1712
unminding1714
impercipient1733
unconscient1829
incognizant1837
uncognisant1860
incognitive1862
inconscient1885
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > lacking emotional sensibility
unfeelingc1000
mis-feelinga1382
stonishc1450
unpainfulc1450
obtuse1509
sprightlessa1522
insensate1553
senseless1560
soulless1568
dull-esprited1591
impassible1592
bluntie1598
impenetrable1600
stockish1600
stolidc1600
incapable1601
stupid1605
tasteless1605
unsensitive1610
unexalted1611
insensible1617
unsensible1619
languid1622
immovable1639
dead-hearted1642
sterile1642
resupine1643
unaffectionate1645
iron-bound1648
resentlessa1649
torpid1656
torpulent1657
impassive1699
unreceptive1722
hebete1743
apathetic1744
stubbed1744
gustless1766
unresponsive1768
unsusceptible1779
tideless-blooded1786
unaffectioned1788
inaccessible1796
hebetudinous1820
unimpressible1828
insensitive1834
apathetical1835
non-sensitive1836
blunt-hearted1845
irreceptive1846
unreceptant1846
unimpressionable1847
anaesthetic1860
insentient1860
hard (also tough, sharp) as nails1862
unsqueamish1893
tone-deaf1894
unget-at-able1897
facty1901
zombie1937
pegamoid1957
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > emotionally unaffected
dead1340
unsmittenc1400
unmovedc1480
unkindleda1525
senseless1560
lumpish1585
unfired1590
unaffectedc1595
incapable1601
unsensible1611
insensible1615
untouched1616
impervious1618
unanswering1632
untransported1641
beauty-proof1676
insensate1726
unsusceptible1734
uninfluenced1735
unimbued1813
unsmote1814
unsusceptive1825
unalive1828
echoless1869
non-conducting1871
unsusceptible1872
irresponsive1886
affectless1912
1560 Medit. Penitent Sinner Pref. sig. A.iiv, in A. L. tr. J. Calvin Serm. Songe Ezechias When markes and tokens of the reprobate, My growing sinnes, of grace my senslesse cheare, Enforce the profe of euerlastyng hate.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. iv. f. 4v Those that chokyng the light of nature, do of purpose make them selues senselesse [Fr. s'abrutissent].
1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. ii. sig. G2v A signe not onely of presumpteous arrogancie, but also of sencelesse brutishnesse.
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge i. i. sig. A3 Piero..is no nummed Lord, Senselesse of all true touch.
1680 T. Otway Orphan v. 63 Why wert thou Deaf to my Cryes and senseless of my pains?
1785 W. Cowper Task i. 28 Not senseless of its charms.
1796 S. T. Coleridge Let. 28 Sept. (1956) I. 143 Your poor father is, I hope, almost senseless of the calamity.
1819 P. B. Shelley Lines Euganean Hills in Rosalind & Helen 70 Senseless is the breast, and cold, Which relenting love would fold.
1840 Gospel Standard Feb. 25 Only a trap..to lull him to sleep in carnal security, and keep him senseless of the true enjoyment of that endless happiness.
1905 Northwestern Christian Advocate 12 July 14/2 Man walks through the good things of life,..senseless of the higher things, the dearer things of enjoyment, culture, and love.
1990 N. Pickard Bum Steer xi. 64 Little hooves and legs were emerging from between the hind legs of the heifer, though she seemed senseless of it.
ΚΠ
1603 M. Drayton Barrons Wars v. xiii. 102 As scarcely thinking on it, As though not sencelesse that it should forgoe him.
3. Of a person or (occasionally) an animal: stupid, foolish; lacking intelligence or common sense.In quot. 1597 as adv.: foolishly.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > lack of reason, irrationality > [adverb]
mazely?c1225
out of (all) reasonc1390
unreasonablya1398
senseless1565
irrationally1652
irrationably1657
unreasoningly1835
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > [adjective]
dizzyc825
unwisec825
redelessOE
unwittyc1000
daftlikec1175
witlessc1175
canga1225
adoted?c1225
cangun?c1225
egedec1225
cangeda1250
foola1250
snepea1250
aerwittec1275
sotlyc1275
unslyc1275
unwitterc1275
unwilya1300
nicec1300
goosishc1374
unskilfulc1374
follyc1380
lewdc1380
mis-feelinga1382
dottlec1390
foltedc1390
peevishc1400
fona1425
fonnishc1425
foliousa1450
foolisha1450
daft?c1450
doitedc1450
dotyc1450
daffish1470
insapientc1470
gucked?a1500
wanwittya1500
furious1526
insipient1528
seelya1529
dawish?1529
foolage1545
momish1546
base-wittedc1547
stultitiousa1549
follifulc1550
senseless1565
mopish1568
fondish1579
unsensiblea1586
fondly1587
dizzardly1594
follial1596
featlessc1598
fopperly1599
gowkeda1605
inept1604
simple1604
anserine1607
foppish1608
silly ass1608
unsage1608
wisdomless1608
fool-beggeda1616
Gotham1621
noddy1645
badot1653
dosser-headed1655
infrunite1657
nonsensicalc1661
slight1663
sappy1670
datelessa1686
noddy-peaked1694
nizy1709
dottled1772
gypit1804
shay-brained1806
folly-stricken1807
fool-like1811
goosy1811
spoony1813
niddle-noddle1821
gumptionless1823
daftish1825
anserous1826
as crazy as a loon1830
spoonish1833
cheese-headed1836
dotty1860
fool-fool1868
noodly1870
dilly1873
gormless1883
daffy1884
monkey-doodle1886
mosy1887
jay1891
pithecanthropic1897
peanut-headed1906
dinlo1907
boob1911
goofy1921
ding-a-ling1935
jerky1944
jerk1947
jerkish1948
pointy-headed1950
doofus1967
twitty1967
twittish1969
nerkish1975
numpty1992
1565 J. Calfhill Aunswere Treat. Crosse f. 42v I think there is none so senslesse as your selfe, but consters his words otherwise than you.
1580 T. Lupton Siuqila 55 Far more senselesse, than the senselest or brutest beast in the world.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III iii. i. 44 You are too sencelesse obstinate my Lo: Too ceremonious and traditionall.
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge iv. i. sig. G2 An honest senselesse dolt, A good poore foole.
1670 C. Cotton tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon ii. viii. 400 His Lieutenant..being so senseless as to come upon [printed open] the draw Bridge of the Castle to talk with them.
1715 R. South 12 Serm. IV. 54 To hold forth, and harangue the Multitude,..wheresoever, and howsoever they could clock the sensless and unthinking Rabble about them.
1770 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xli. 127 Who is there so senseless as to renounce his share in a common benefit, unless he hopes to profit by a new division of the spoil.
1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci v. iii. 93 What! Will you give up these bodies to be dragged At horses' heels, so that our hair should sweep The footsteps of the vain and senseless crowd.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) II. xxiv. 345 When Eusebius asked her if she knew the man, she answered that she would not be so senseless as to accuse such men.
1912 C. Garnett tr. F. Dostoevsky Brothers Karamazov 1 He was one of those senseless persons who are very well capable of looking after their worldly affairs, and, apparently, after nothing else.
1977 Pop. Sci. July 58/1 Only a senseless idiot would jam on both brakes on a slick wet road.
2011 Birmingham Evening Mail (Nexis) 24 Nov. 67 The entire blame for this nightmare of hold-ups..lies with the apparent army of mindless senseless cretins.
4. Of an action, occurrence, state of affairs, etc.: resulting from lack of sense or intelligence; stupid, foolish; often implying also lack of meaning, purpose, or point. Also with the latter meaning uppermost: without sense, signification, or meaning; unintelligible, purposeless.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > absence of meaning > [adjective]
emptya1225
sleevelessc1450
dumb1531
insensible1538
senseless1579
weetless1579
unsignificant1603
surd1605
matterless1612
unmeaning1632
non-significative1633
brute1642
shelly1648
insignificant1651
insignificative1660
unsignificative1664
unsignifying1665
unsensed1667
meaningless1728
bilka1734
meanless1734
inexpressive1744
unideal1751
unexpressive1755
idealess1793
unsuggestive1797
tenorless1821
themeless1840
nonsensible1851
inarticulate1855
purportless1865
expressionless1871
vacuous1872
contentless1886
unmeaningful1897
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > [adjective] > rendering physically insensible
senseless1579
numbing1581
numb-cold1597
astonishing1617
benumbing1628
deading1647
bedeading1656
torporific1769
sopient1804
deadening1805
torpefying1822
the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > [adjective] > of things, actions, etc.
unwittyc1200
nicea1393
foolisha1413
kimeta1450
peevish1519
silly1566
senseless1579
untoward1658
bright1830
spoony1834
fool-fool1868
noodly1870
twitty1967
twittish1969
1579 E. K. in E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Ep. Ded. sig. ¶.ijv What so they vnderstand not, they streight way deeme to be sencelesse.
1588 ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 1 D. Bridges hath written in your defence, a most senceles book.
1614 S. Purchas Pilgrimage (ed. 2) ii. xiv. 190 (margin) The Rabbines haue another as senselesse a dreame that Phineas was Elias.
1645 J. Ussher Body of Divinitie 419 Which thing yet were senslesse to doubt of.
1693 J. Locke Some Thoughts conc. Educ. §11. 11 There are other Creatures, as well as Monkeys, who, little wiser than they destroy their young Ones by sensless fondness, and too much embracing.
1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. ii. 113 Cheap, senseless Libels were scatter'd about the City.
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 26. ⁋10 Putting all my Force against the horrid and senseless Custom of Duels.
1797 J. Gifford tr. T. G. de Lally-Tolendal Def. French Emigrants 384 The senseless attacks of the proletarian Jacobins.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iv. 441 The senseless and dastardly wickedness of mixing noxious drugs with the food of a young girl whom he had no conceivable motive to injure.
1863 F. A. Kemble Jrnl. Resid. Georgian Plantation 129 Many of the masters and overseers on these plantations..encourage nothing but cheerful music and senseless words.
1885 Law Rep.: Queen's Bench Div. 14 799 If that argument be true, the clause..was an absolutely futile and senseless one.
1933 E. A. Powell Slanting Lines of Steel xiii. 202 Fully a hundred shells fell during the next ten minutes, but it was a senseless waste of ammunition.
1974 J. Gaby Restless Waterfront 222 We got caught up in a senseless dispute, a demarcation issue, a most frustrating and hopeless affair.
2012 N.Y. Times 24 Nov. a20/3 I am filled with sorrow and anger at the senseless loss of life..in the Hurricane Sandy tragedy.
5. In predicative use (as object complement).
a. to knock (also beat) a person senseless and variants: to render (a person) unconscious through violence.
ΚΠ
1834 Atkinson's Casket Apr. 179/2 The point of the stick had caught Dolan fairly on the right temple.., as if done by a sabre stroke, felling him senseless.
1859 B. W. Noel Eng. & India i. ii. 112 It did not satisfy his tormentors, and he was beaten senseless.
1899 Pall Mall Mag. Feb. 307 In the outer tent I found the attendant women sleeping, and very quietly I knocked them senseless too.
1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xx. 357 You will come with me, though I have to ding you senseless and carry you.
1988 J. Ellroy Big Nowhere xx. 222 He beat the man senseless and had Fritzie what's his name drive him over the state line.
2011 Independent on Sunday 30 Oct. (New Review) 23/1 His trademark move—the classic head-butt, guaranteed to knock anyone senseless.
b. colloquial. In phrases denoting actions carried out to an extreme or excessive degree, esp. to the extent that the person involved becomes unconscious, or no longer capable of thinking or acting sensibly. Cf. silly adj. 8b.
ΚΠ
1908 Western Field Sept. 103/1 Our horses, simply scared senseless, tore along like two crazy things.
1930 R. Graves But it still goes On ii. 143 A man can drink himself silly or eat himself senseless on chocolate cream or tripe.
1964 Life July 12/3 I can just picture Mr. Gernreich and Miss Moffit laughing themselves senseless.
1985 D. Lucie Progress i. i, in Progress & Hard Feelings 5 He drinks himself senseless. It gets the whole family.
1998 J. Moores Brookside (Mersey TV transmission script) Episode 2039. 56 He'll bore you senseless about times when he used to work in the ‘bowels of a ship.’
2005 Food & Trav. Feb. 9/2 Pamper yourself senseless in the Pathways spa.
2013 London Evening Standard 10 Oct. 20/1 He is 29 and spends his time shagging her senseless.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.a1547